


love is war

by njckle



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Marriage Proposal, War, newtina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-04-27 16:57:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14430081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/njckle/pseuds/njckle
Summary: Newt pops the question in the most inconvenient of places.





	love is war

**Author's Note:**

> I'm supposed to be on hiatus (self-inflicted banishment, if you will), but I'm posting this because I promised I would last year and goddammit, I'm going to keep to my word. I hope it isn't absolute shit. :)

They’re in the middle of a war when Newt does something more ludicrous than he’s ever done.

The day is warm, clear blue skies stretching for miles while the sun glares down on the Polish city Tina’s forgotten the name of. Plumes of smoke roll up higher and higher from explosions dotting the streets, and the ground shakes as she drags Newt along through a sea of brick.

“I can’t believe you!” she says, checking if the coast is clear. It is and she makes for the rundown building that could have once been a school, shoving him through the door and deep in the building until she’s sure no one’s followed them. Not the best place to be, but it’s better than being out in the open. “Of all the places to stumble into!”

“I had to see you.” Despite their situation, Newt is as stubborn as always, as if this isn’t the worst place to have followed her. He sticks out like a sore thumb against the barren room, full of color from the taness of his skin to the vibrancy of his coat, a creature not fit for the paleness of war.

“Well, now you’ve seen me! Now get out of the city before you’re killed!” Tina means for that to be it, but her anger pushes her to say more. She jabs him in the chest. “You shouldn’t even be here! It’s dangerous!”

“And it isn’t for you?”

“I chose to be here!”

“As did I.”

Tina curses herself for falling for such an infuriating man. “You know that it’s not the same!”

Before she could argue more, Tina hears the sound of footsteps and turns to hit her would-be attacker in the chest with a stunning spell; she grabs Newt’s hand and is already running before the man hits the ground. She doesn’t stop until until they’re back on the street, weaving through small alleyways until she sees something fit for shelter and not so easily compromised.

The rumble of No-Maj fighter planes preceed the high-pitched sound that Tina’s come to associate with trouble and a siren begins to wail as the first of the bombs land, their targets random and completely decimated. One falls not even a half a block away and nearly knocks them to their knees.

“Tina, the reason I—”

Tina shushes him, shoving him into a aclove before a troop of wizards coming from the opposite direction spot them. “Not now!” She should be at her post with the rest of her division, keeping Grindelwald’s followers at bay, not getting all turned around in a war zone with a man she wishes wasn’t here.

“I need to ask if—” The bombs drown out his words and Tina only hears the last half of his sentence. “—my niffler stole it a month ago. I've only just got it back.”

“Newt, I said not—”

She’s stops dead in her tracks, words stumbling on her tongue and dissipating in the stale air. For an infinitely long second her world shrinks into nothing except for the man in front of her because Newt’s on his knees. There are two golden rings settled in his palm.

“Sweet Merry Louis,” she breathes under the sound of gunshots and war engines. Newt looks at her, dust discoloring his bright hair, eyes shining against the ashen canvas of their circumstance, and Tina feels like a bullet has pierced her chest, tight and explosive. But it’s gone in a flash, reality barging in as she grabs his hands, rings and all, and yanks him up. “Get up! This isn't exactly the best place to do this!”

If she thought that Newt would be embarrassed at her response, his proposal thrown aside in favor of their lives, she's sorely mistaken. The determined expression remains on his face. “With how things are turning out, I don't think there will ever be a right place to do it. Here's as good as any.”

As if to go against his words, a barrage of spells erupt from the front, a few reaching the buildings nearby, chipping off massive pieces of concrete. Tina ducks when she sees figures among the swirling smoke, tugging Newt down with her. “You really want to do this now?”

“I was planning on asking before you left, but I let fear get the best of me. I didn’t know if I'd get another chance,” he says, “and if I'm to die today I wouldn't mind dying a married man.” He doesn't stop there. He lays his hands on her shoulders, yelling to be heard. “It’s something I've wanted to do ever since I was lucky enough to have made your acquaintance. Tina, I—”

A spell pierces through the wall, barely missing Newt’s head, and Tina’s heart rockets. She has her auror uniform, protective spells weaved into the very thread; Newt does not. Quick as an billywig, she pulls him away from the wall before it crumbles from the onslaught of spells, keeping her body between him and current danger until all that’s left of their cover is a four-foot slab of concrete.

Then her face is cradled between his hands, gentle and desperate all at once. They stare into each other eyes, an important message etched in every inch of Newt’s expression, and Tina _knows_. “I need an answer.”

“Yes,” she says so quickly she should be embarrassed, but isn’t. Newt smiles, relieved, leaning forward and into her space.

More spells pepper walls, destroying the moment before it’s even begun. Tina hears voices. They’ve definitely been spotted.

In the stories her mother used to tell her, the world stops and lets the heroes express their undying love to one another. They get to say what they want to say, kiss like they want to, and everything takes a step back to watch. War isn’t like that, not really. It doesn’t stop just because Tina’s come to the realization that her answer is _yes, always and forever yes_ , and it certainly doesn’t care that she so desperately needs to make this proposal a reality.

But to hell with that. If she is going to die today, she’s going to to make it count, whether or not she has to do it herself. She grabs Newt’s hand. “Don’t let go,” she tells him.

It doesn’t take much to topple a building, especially ones already so damaged. Tina peeks out to get a general view of those across the street and spots a weak point in some of the infrastructure that’s been laid barren by battle; she throws out her curse quicker than any of the men prowling around can react. “ _Reducto_!”

It collapses, screeching like a downed banshee, scattering their pursuers, throwing up billowing clouds of dust. Tina doesn’t wait to see if the coast it clear, throwing herself out into the open with Newt stumbling behind her.

Hand in hand, they make their way through the ravaged streets, skimming the edge of the battlefield, leaving one front and heading for another. The whistling and crackling of spells and roar of hellfire fade with the growing distance, the cries of men muted in the unnatural silence of the abandoned city, it’s people long gone and having left all their material belongings scattered along the streets in their haste to escape. Many of the city’s structures are still standing, decorated with only cracks and scorch marks whilst some don’t have roofs; Tina spies holes peppered along buildings, the work of No-Majes who’d marched through months earlier. It's all so bleak and empty, a shadow of what it all was, but Newt’s hand is warm and solid and Tina’s too high on adrenaline to think more of the tragedy.

They’re nearly at the center of the city when Tina finally sees the man she's looking for. “Mr. Graves!”

The head auror looks strange standing beside the remains of a playground, commanding his subordinates while defending himself from a barrage of spells. He’s lost his coat since the last time Tina’s saw him before deploying and the large, bloody gash on his arm has coated his entire sleeve red. “What are you doing here, Tina? You’re supposed to be with division six on the southside!” The man finally recognizes who is standing beside her. “What is _he_ doing here?”

“We’re getting married and we need a standing official!”

That stalls the man and his hardened expression somewhat fades in his surprise. He nearly gets taken out by a flyaway curse that leaves the swingset twisted. “What? Now?”

“Now would be preferable!” Newt calls out, squeezing her hand.

Mr. Graves waves them to move as a bent-up automobile tumbles by. He wandlessly flings it back into the cloud of dust hiding their enemies. “You can’t be serious! _Now_?”

“Yes!”

“Have you lost your mind? Get back to your post! And take Scamander with you!”

Tina throws out a wave of fire when she glimpses at the wispy figures beginning to shape in the distance, then points her wand at her superior. She doesn’t have time for this. “Will you marry us or not?”

“Point that somewhere else!” Mr. Graves swats her arm aside. He steps closer, completely unkept and ragged, but still as intimidating as ever. “Are you absolutely serious, Tina?”

Tina stands her ground. She’s never been more sure. “Completely.”

There’s a reason she’d liked him over the rest of her bosses. It takes him all of two seconds to turn and call out to the rest of the force. “We need a witness!”

“You've got more than enough witnesses!” someone Tina doesn't recognize shouts back. The voice is lost in the gathering dust. “Just get on with it already! Marry the damn fools!”

Mr. Graves looks annoyed at being commanded by his own subordinates, but does what everyone asks, his words rushed and lacking emotion. “Dearly beloved, we're gathered here today—”

“Incoming!”

They all jump away in opposite directions when the final piece of the wall bordering the opposing sides topples to the ground. Dust and debris rise into the air, covering Tina in a grey sheet, obscuring her sight to only what's five feet from her face. She hears Mr. Graves, stubbornly sticking the script in face of the chaos. “—in sickness and in health! For better and for worse—”

A hand finds hers and then Newt’s face is inches from hers. Pieces of concrete and brick are stuck in his hair, dirt caking to his skin, and she sees the beginning of a cut just above his brow that must've been from a fall. He has the appearance of a gritty soldier, eyes wild like one of his beasts, but his stare is completely focused and entirely on her.

“Skip the formalities!” Johnson yells, leaping over rubble and scaling the remains of a building for higher ground. “Get to the important part!”

Tina agrees. There's no need for a formal procession, nothing excessive that might take up precious time. They've dodged around each other for years, playing an intricate game that pushed them closer to an ending she's sure they both want, and she figures the time to dilly dally is over. Tina hurriedly slips the ring on Newt’s finger and, soon enough, she’s wearing her own golden band.

Mr. Graves doesn't retaliate at the lack of respect and the interruption. He merely deflects a curse, taking down two enemies that risked advancing, and follows the advice. “Do you, Porpentina Goldstein, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do!” Newt disarms the three men that round the corner and Tina knocks them out cold before turning her sights on the oncoming attackers at her left. “More from the left!”

“Watson! Deal with them!” Mr. Graves waves his wand, recreating half of the building to give them more cover. “And do you, Newt Scamander, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

Newt pulls Tina closer to what used to be a bakery and into some semblance of cover, and Tina thinks that he’s not taking any chances, not when they’re so close. “I do,” he says into her ear.

“I said, do you—”

“Merlin’s ass, he said ‘I do!’” Johnson yells, popping up beside them suddenly. He summons a shield for what Tina hopes is the end on the ceremony. The sunlight dims at the magical canopy. “Wrap it up! Tell them to kiss already!”

“I now pronounce you man and wife! You may now kiss the bride!” And then the man is off, lunging forward and into the raging battle just beyond the cover of debris. “Jones and Harper, you two with me! Johnson, make sure those two stay alive until I come back!”

“Well, get to it,” Johnson tells Tina and Newt. “We don’t have all day.”

Newt wastes no time. He pulls Tina into his arms and kisses her straight on the mouth. His lips are chapped and tastes like ash and dirt, but they press against hers confidently and passionately.

The sound of the battle continues on, shouting and the rumble of a city slowly turning to rubble, but Tina ignores it in favor of a moment she doesn't want to miss a second of. Her hands flit about, unsure where to settle, grabbing the lapels of Newt’s coat, then touching his jaw, until finally winding around his neck to bring him closer. The grip on her waist tightens and a hand presses against the small of her back. From there it turns into something slower, a dangerous thing when in context of their surroundings, but she'll be damned if she doesn't get this, war or not.

“Alright, bank’s closed,” Johnson says far too quickly for Tina’s liking. “If we survive this, then you can cash it whenever you want.”

“Later,” Newt whispers and Tina sees it for what it is: a promise to survive.

“Later.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all know the scene from the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie where Will and Elizabeth get married? Yeah. This was basically that.
> 
> Whelp, see y'all in a week or two.


End file.
